American plastic surgeon indicted on a charge of murdering his wife, the Texan socialite and equestrian Joan Robinson Hill.
On 24 September 1972, a few weeks before his second trial for his wife’s murder was to start, John Hill was shot dead by a masked gunman during a robbery at his mansion as he and his third wife, Connie, returned home from a medical conference in Las Vegas.
Bobby Wayne Vandiver was arrested for Hill’s murder in April 1973. When he confessed to the murder, he told police he had done it for financial gain, that the shooting was a contract killing that he had been asked to carry out for $5,000. During his confession, Vandiver implicated Marcia McKittrick and Lilla Paulus as having been accessories to Hill’s murder.
On 25 April 1973, a grand jury voted to indict Vandiver and McKittrick for first degree murder, and indict Paulus as an accomplice to murder. Vandiver’s trial was set for September 1973. The trial was eventually rescheduled for April 1974, but Vandiver failed to appear. He had moved to Longview, Texas, adopting an alias. Longview police officer John Raymer grew suspicious of the newcomer to his town. After discovering the man’s first name was actually Bobby, Raymer confronted Vandiver at a cafe one evening in May; Vandiver pulled a gun, and Raymer shot him dead.
Under questioning, McKittrick corroborated Vandiver’s story. McKittrick was tried and convicted in 1974 of being Vandiver’s getaway driver and given a ten-year jail sentence. She was paroled after serving five years. Lilla Paulus was convicted and given a 35-year sentence. She died of breast cancer at the Gatesville prison on 16 May 1986.
Link to Joan Robinson Hill’s Marriage to John Hill